QUESTION:
From what I’ve seen and heard, a yacht charter can be very expensive. Is it not cheaper to book a cruise instead?
ANSWER:
Editorial Team
The two are very different experiences of life at sea, and of a holiday.
The reality is that the cost per person when booking a private yacht charter may not be that far out from the costs associated with a holiday onboard a luxury cruise ship.
A lot of factors come into the picture, and calculations can be undertaken by your broker to give you a good estimate of the full price paid by each member of your party, even if you, as the main charterer, will actually foot the bill for everyone.
Beside the fact that the private yacht chartered is « yours », which will never be the case of a cruise ship where you will bump into hundreds of unknown faces, it is worth remembering that the base rate of a charter superyacht has to do with her size : a twelve-guest charter party onboard a 50m/165’ superyacht will cost a fraction of the fees for that same party chartering an 80m/265’ megayacht.
Weekly charter rates are NOT calculated per head and the maximum guest capacity, but have to do with all the characteristics of the vessel.
